“What’s blocking us right now is sort of hyper-partisanship in Washington that, frankly, I was hoping to overcome in 2008. And in the midst of crisis, I think the other party reacted, rather than saying now is the time for us all to join together, decided to take a different path,” Obama said at the Democratic National Committee fundraiser. “My thinking was after we beat them in 2012, well, that might break the fever, and it’s not quite broken yet.
“But I am persistent,” he said. “And I am staying at it. And I genuinely believe that there are actually Republicans out there who would like to work with us but they’re fearful of their base and they’re concerned about what Rush Limbaugh might say about them. And, as a consequence, we get the kind of gridlock that makes people cynical about government and inhibits our progress.”

Obama blames Republicans who fear Limbaugh. Obama does not blame Limbaugh. See the difference?

Bard--you should do stand-up. Any crime committed by a conservative brings about an empathetic comment like "Hate the sin, love the sinner." Any crime committed by the poor brings about a comment about how this is all the fault of entitlement programs sapping their work ethic. So I will pose a few challenges for your rationalization and Jaysus talk. What say you to defend:

Quote:

Rosalind S. Helderman, Carol D. Leonnig and Sari Horwitz, Published: January 21 E-mail the writers
Former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, were charged Tuesday with illegally accepting gifts, luxury vacations and large loans from a wealthy Richmond area businessman who sought special treatment from state government.

Authorities allege that for nearly two years, the McDonnells repeatedly asked executive Jonnie R. Williams Sr. for loans and gifts of money, clothes, golf fees and equipment, trips, and private plane rides. The gifts and loans totaled at least $165,000.

And then there are these "Christians":

Quote:

Westboro Baptist Church
About WBC
The Topeka, Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is a small virulently homophobic, anti-Semitic hate group that regularly stages protests around the country, often several times a week. The group pickets institutions and individuals they think support homosexuality or otherwise subvert what they believe is God’s law.

Incorporated in 1967 as a not-for-profit organization, WBC considers itself an “Old School (or Primitive)” Baptist Church. WBC’s leader is Fred Phelps and several of his children and dozens of his grandchildren appear to constitute the majority of the group’s members. WBC has no official affiliation with mainstream Baptist organizations.

While WBC members have protested at Jewish institutions over the years, such institutions were not a major focus for the group until April 2009. Since then, WBC has targeted dozens of Jewish institutions around the country, from Israeli consulates to synagogues to Jewish community centers, distributing anti-Semitic fliers to announce planned protests at these sites. WBC has also been sending volumes (in some cases dozens over the course of a week) of faxes and emails with anti-Semitic and anti-gay messages to various Jewish institutions and individuals.

In addition, in April 2010, the group began mailing a virulently anti-Semitic DVD to Jewish organizations and leaders. The DVD also attacks President Obama, describing him as the anti-Christ, and is filled with anti-gay and anti-Catholic vitriol.
Other WBC targets include schools the group deems to be accepting of homosexuality; Catholic, Lutheran, and other Christian denominations that WBC feels are heretical; and funerals for people murdered or killed in accidents like plane crashes and for American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, a tactic the group started in 2005. Though the group's specific focus may shift over time, they believe that nearly all Americans and American institutions are “sinful,” so nearly any individual or organization can be targeted.

In fact, WBC members say that “God’s hatred is one of His holy attributes” and that their picketing is a form of preaching to a “doomed” country unable to hear their message in any other way.http://archive.adl.org/learn/ext_us/wbc/default.html?LEARN_Cat=Extremism&LEARN_SubCat=Extremism_in_America&xpicked=3&item=WBC

You all seem to have missed the actual message from Jesus in Corinthians:

And now abides faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. Of course in some versions the greatest of these is charity. Both you and Westboro didn't get the memo.

Why should we fear government? We should fear politicians. Especially ones who preach less government but want to tell us...

who we can marry
who we can have sex with
whether we can have a kid
where we can put a church

These people are freakin scary! They are also the ones telling us how “hurricanes and Earthquakes are Gods work against blah blah”. How rape isn’t a problem, especially “legitimate rape”, how the “HPV vaccination causes retardation”. I could go on and on.

Oh I forgot that big lie Pueno brought up. How we put American boots on the ground, flew 4000 sorties, and decimated a Muslim country the size of Ohio that never even shot a B.B. gun at us. Way to think that one through. A guaranteed way to generate more extremists and “splinter groups” as George Tenet later testified. To spend $900 billion dollars on one bad guy? All because as George “W” said, “He tried to kill my father”. What are we in 2nd grade?

Could not agree more fredrick23! George W. def had the warhead out for Sadam. Did'nt seem to matter how many innocents got killed in the process. This also had the the desired effect of increasing our national debt, thereby making it easy to argue the necessity of cutting social programs.

Sorry Bard, isn't that easy. The Bush Administration started two wars in the Middle East, whereas the Obama Administration inherited two wars where they have made clear progress ending one and winding down the other. Admittedly, Obama expanded the Afghanistan War to fulfill the intent of the war's initial goals, but he has been very transparent about the horizon line for ending the war. Do you remember how pissed certain folks were that Obama identified a pull-out target date? The classic "damned if you do, and damned if you don't" scenario.

Isobars, it's a good portion of your base and it is not “nonsense” by any means as you say. We both know it. Difference is, you look the other way because of fiscal stuff. I can’t vote for it, neither should you. Does spewing crap like that out weigh a few percentage points on taxes? I would rather pay 15% more taxes and have all those people off the planet. Hell 25% more if I had to. And I hate taxes! Basic human respect out weighs money every time.

What about that $900 Billion dollar war stuff I / pueno mentioned? Ooops? Sorry, just obliterated a Muslim country that never pointed a squirt gun at us. Any wonder why those extremist have us in their sights? Mike, your a smart guy, how do you deal with bees? Do you spend $1 trillion rattling the biggest nest on the planet and watch them all scatter as they tell their friends? Or, do you quietly dispose of the one or two bad bees with good technology while no one is looking? It was 19 guys with razor blades for Christ sake. The Navy Seals were on horses in Afghanistan looking. Nothing to do with $1 trillion spent blowing up Iraq.

Thinking a bit more currently about Afghanistan, the importance of having Karsai sign an agreement to maintain a US presence in Afghanistan as a condition of ending the war is a really important crossroad right now. Really, it's about Pakistan and serving our long term interests in the region. The Obama Administration is playing hardball, and I think that fiscally minded neo-conservatives wouldn't do it any differently.

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